When I'm outlining, I always have my premise, my setting and my world building done long before I find my characters.

All year around I collect cuttings from magazines, most bought at second hand markets or stores - I use a variety of magazines, not the ones I tend to read. Nothing gets you into the head of a farmer better than reading Australian farmer.

Both of these cuttings come from Runner's World. On the right, this lady was originally heading up an article about "Dressing up to Run". Focusing on the picture, I see a leader from a futuristic world who is determined to preserve her way of life.

On the left, I'm more interested in the narrative and the background than the man in the picture. Astronauts on the international space station should exercise for 2 hours a day to preserve bone density and muscle mass. Without gravity, sweat pools on your skin and doesn't come off until you wipe it. The setting is the bonus here - its clinical, shiny, technology, crammed but not cramped. All useful to know when writing people in space.

So, NaNoWriMo prep is done. Now its time to stop faffing and write the book. See you next week with an update...

I love writing futuristic and sci-fi and one of the most important aspects to this is world building. How can you make the world you're describing futuristic enough to satisfy the reader without making it so incredibly complex, they are lost in the story.

Here's a couple of my techniques:

1. Photos out of context.These flowers (above) caught my eye in a decorative garden. If I'd zoomed out, the photo would have depicted a world renowned park in Melbourne. Zoomed in, three's a bit of an odd flora look to these guys. So, how could they be important to the story? Are they dangerous? Contain a cancer containing chemical? Do they only grow on a certain planet? Do they watch you??? The possibilities are endless.

2. Revised history.Everyone knows about the moon landing in the late 1960's. What would have happened if the astronauts had discovered something unexpected, or brought an infection back to earth with those moon rocks? What about if the US Prohibition had been on something other than alcohol? How would civilisation develop over the next 500 years, if cake, or technology, or cauliflowers had been banned. Thinking that through, its feasible that a cauliflower underground exists on future Earth, especially if future scientists discover some pharmaceutical in the leaves of the cauliflower, or the larvae of the moths that eat them. (I promise never to write the cauliflower underground but you know what I mean).

3. The Time CapsuleThis could be for a race, or a town or an individual. You open a package from the past and forever, your life is changed. The package arrives at your isolated space base and it tells you two things - the first is that your parent has died, the second is that in their bedside drawer filled with memorabilia there were two sets of booties, one pink, one blue, two birth certificates, obviously two children. But you're an only child. Where is your sibling? Fast forward 500 years and there are two races at war. What if those siblings, separated at birth, were the founders of those races? How would that differ from them being completely different peoples?

As you can see, there's no shortage of ideas. I'll be writing futuristic for NaNoWriMo, so this is the kind of thing I'll be doing in October.

Once upon a time I thought the concept of writing 50K in 30 days was nonsense and not something I could ever achieve. Then a really good friend introduced her novel to me in our critiquing sessions. While I was still working week to week for the critique group, she had an entire novel drafted to bring. She was working differently to me and I could see the potential.

It's not just notebooks either - I wrote a futuristic prohibition society without colour or texture in its fabrics - the photo above is detail from the quilt I made in the October before writing that book. In the novel, the heroine has this quilt and in a pivotal scene, she and the military man sent to bring her in end up horizontal on this quilt.

Another month has whizzed by, so how is my progress towards my goals going?

1. Year of the Novel - Still drafting my story. My critique partners have been excellent, pointing out the deficiencies in what is essentially still a first draft. My new goal is to have a workable first draft by 31/12/15. I don't feel there is possibility of a polished manuscript to send.

2. Writing Day - back on track with my writing day. I have been doing some sprints with my e-critique group The Scattered Wordsmiths and those have been brilliant.

3. Running - DRUM ROLL - I have been doing the local Park Run and what a sensational experience that is. Still really slow, but feeling much better. I've also downloaded a park fitness program, for those nights when its just Jade and I at the off-leash park. Last night, we walked the perimeter of the park and at every bench I did 20 squats and 20 wall push-ups against the backrest. It's all helping.

4. Balance - I've discovered I'm keeping up with what I need to do, its the backlog that's slowing me down. So, when I next have annual leave, I'll be working on the backlog. Wish me luck.

Recently, a friend from western Queensland who only knows Jade through social media sent me the card on the left. It's by artist Daniel Mackie and the artwork is called "Black Labrador". There's more of his artwork at www.thedmcollection.com - images of animals with their natural habitat depicted within them. Gorgeous artwork!

The photo on the right is one of mine. Nowhere near as artistic, but sums up my puppy to a T - play until you fall asleep, then crash. It's her first birthday in a few weeks and I'm busy on plans for a sensational day for her. Park, water play, pup-cakes and some sort of celebration dinner.

Fiona Greene Author

"A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step." Join me as I travel the road to publication and beyond.